#103 Confronting the Scourge of Opium

Views on opium

• Based on the short reading from Schell and Delury, the video, and your prior knowledge, consider the following questions with a partner:
  • How was nineteenth-century knowledge about opium similar or different to the way the drug is commonly understood today?
  • How did your own prior knowledge of opium match—or not match—what you learned in the video about the drug?
  • Where did you get your prior knowledge? Where are you getting this knowledge? If there are discrepancies, how do you evaluate which to believe?
• Full class discussion:
  • Key takeaways from pair discussion?
  • Can you explain the problem that the Daoguang emperor and Lin Zexu were trying to address? In other words, what was the problem of opium?

Exercise: “Who is responsible?”

• Instructions (Google Doc).